But after having had an emergency board meeting – I have been told to explain it all to everyone else.

It all started yesterday afternoon while I was at work. Police Constable Bolter & friend knocked on our door (PMMS – please fix the downstairs security door for once & for all!!!) – and asked Nadira where I was.

Of course – for a woman alone in her flat to be confronted by 2 police men – asking to speak to her partner – is not the most pleasant of experiences – especially when they by-passed the security door. Nadira explained that I was at work – but got the impression that they didn’t believe her.

They then asked her to tell me to call them about the community meeting. She then asked the most talkative one what his name was – and felt that he was reluctant to give it – but he did – and said I knew the telephone number – which I do as Neil & I sit on the local Safer Neighbourhood Team (Community Advisory Panel) meetings.

When I got a tea break at work – I gave him a call – thinking it was still going to be a nice friendly chat about the participants of the meeting – which I have a bit-part in organising as I also sit on the Hackney Wick Partnership meetings helping to organise this meeting.

What followed was a very one-sided conversation with PC Bolter stressing in his very professional manner - that he had been told by his sergeant that there were people using our blog who were organising to disrupt the meeting – and that at the first sign of any trouble – he would personally be arresting the trouble makers.

I listened in stunned silence as he proceeded to make me feel very guilty about having set up a local community blog. However he was trying to sound – he came across sounding as if he was warning me! Telling me – that if I had any influence (wink, wink) that I should dissuade these potential trouble makers from disrupting the meeting. Saying that there was talk of starting a fire – which he would again – personally – extinguish.

All in all the very one-sided conversation lasted about 5 minutes – and I felt like a little school boy being told off by Sir. I managed to get a few words in – but – to be honest – don’t think he really heard me. He said he hadn’t even seen our blog that he was warning me about.

So far – so text book. So far – so just doing his job. Someone complains about a neighbour. Local copper pays a visit to politely warn said neighbour about their behaviour. The more raised their voice, the more direct their language, the more they talk at you – the less you feel like being a bad neighbour.

In theory.

But let’s look at the slightly bigger picture shall we?

Leabank Square is a stunning place to live. We all know just how lucky we are to have a cleverly designed square that discourages any anti-social behaviour, we have communal barbies, picnics, festivals, gardening clubs, cycling tours – and all the other things that we have written about on this blog. We are proud of Leabank Square – and so when something goes a bit skew – we want to make it better.

We lost Arena Fields – we tried to make it better – but the politicians then sold it off to the ODA.

We then started suffering with the noise & dust from the massive construction site next door – we are trying to make it better – by asking POLITELY for the ODA to be a better neighbour.

When they ignored us – we – STILL POLITELY – got a few more interested parties to ask them to be nicer neighbours.

When they started lying to us – we STILL VERY POLITELY asked our democratically elected representatives to ask questions on our behalf.

Then the fun began.

Some of our computers were co-incidentally hacked into. We started co-incidentally receiving silent phone calls on unlisted numbers. Some phone calls co-incidentally playing personal recorded phone calls made to friends were made. Some very personal messages were co-incidentally sent to me warning me off continuing campaigning for cleaner air & less noise.

And - so now - who co-incidentally suggested to the police to come over to chat to me? If Sergeant Port just happened to be surfing the local blogs & happened to come across our community blog & happened to be interested in the comments section (which I do not write) of one of hundreds of blog entries – then fair dues! He might suggest to his PC that he have a quiet word with the blog entry (which I do write) author.

But then I have met Sergeant Port & as I wrote in (http://hackneywick.blogspot.com/2008/12/safer-neighbourhood-team.html) back in December – I was very impressed with his hands-on approach to street work. I haven’t heard about his web surfing prowess – yet – but I will be even more impressed if he still finds the time to surf local blogs after doing the fantastic street policing I know he does.

So the chat from PC Bolter in itself - is nothing out of the ordinary. He was just doing his job. Sure - he could have tried to listen to me a bit more – but he knows how to do his job far better than I do. But – it’s just that he was co-incidentally asked to chat to me about another instance related to the ODA.

So who is behind all this?

I am not for even a second suggesting that it is the ODA at all. But then who is it? Not the LDA. Not the IOC. Not the Department of Culture, Media & Sport. Not Hackney Council. Not Morrisons. Not Boris Johnson. Not BAM Nuttal. Not David Higgins. Not Carillion. Not some over-enthusiastic Olympic Supporter. Not BOSS (anymore!).

But who?

And why?

Well…….. there are far more cleverer people than me who are very busy finding out for us. But in the meantime Leabank Square – please be very careful about what you say to anyone. You too might be branded a trouble-maker and may be visited by PC Bolter & friend.

The board of the LSRA is deciding whether or not to encourage the whole square not to go to the meeting. If there really are going to be agitators & fire-starters as PC Bolters intelligence suggests – then it might suggest that we all stay safely here in Leabank Square on the 22nd January.

In summary: The whole reason I am waffling on about all this – is that PC Bolter asked me to use my influence to dissuade any potential trouble-makers intent on disrupting the meeting. He then suggested that I not mention having a phone call with him. I tried by posting that (admittedly) rather confusing post about the meeting – and haven’t stopped taking frustrated phone calls on the Leabank Square Residents Hotline (07535 054 997 as I never tire of reminding everyone!!).

The board then called an extra-ordinary meeting today to discuss this – and insisted I tell all.

We all have to keep reminding ourselves that we are a small, but tight-knit community residential square, and our only ‘crime’ was to engage our anti-social neighbours in some kind of dialogue to sort out the noise & dust.

53 comments:

Ms Pink
said...

So this is what kast nights meeting was about? When will anyone realise that we are just a small group of residents who don't want to breathe toxic dust - and don't want to have 7 day a week noise - for many years to come? Now the police don't want us to say this directly to the faces of the very people doing this to us?

Shona I know you asked us to call the media off - but this seems to be the only avenue we have left to us. The olympic people don't reply to our letters anymore. The police don't want us to talk directly to them - now we HAVE to get the media to ask the questions for us!

I’m so sorry that you and your lovely family have had to go through all this intimidation! Could it just be some nutter who REALLY with an Olympic fetish?

Shame on all these different bodies for neglecting Hackney Wick like this!! If the council had given us more support in the beginning instead of granting section 61’s like candy – then we would have had none of this rubbish.

How dare the police use intimidatory tactics like knocking directly on your door to talk to you about something you didn’t do?! Are you sure these officers are not related to those marching up & down the tow-path all day & night? Did you hear how loud they were talking on their 2am patrol last night?! More intimidation!Su

I just got the news mate! Sorry about all this – we should have been a bit more supportive when it all started to go belly-up. Don’t worry about plod – he doesn’t even know how badly he’s being used by these people.

Let’s just go about the legal route still. The only language these people know are legal writs. It gets them all horny!Mr Black

Hello NadiraYou should have called us over as soon as you saw them! I saw them leaving. They sent the tallest ones didn’t they?! Next time – tell them to come back when Sóna gets home from work! But I know it’s difficult to think straight when they just appear on your doorstep!Mary

You know – I honestly don’t even think the police know anything about the reason for this meeting? My guess is that that guy with the waistcoat asked them to come and shout at you in the hope that we will give him an easy meeting. The police probably have no knowledge of the ‘relationship’ we’ve had with the council and Olympic bods at all.

There is a major element of ‘just doing their job’ about this all. This reinforces the likelihood that someone has set them up, that they were told not to ask why, just go down and out the frighteners on Leabank Square. Get them in line.

Sona don’t let The Man get to you mate! A few crusties pretend to be all hard on our blog and we get the blame! And when we call the police up to sort the Lord Napier lot out they park outside dancing to the music all night themselves! The sooner those CPO’s go through to better!! That pub was always trouble even when the towers were still up. Mike

Dizzy just called me here at work to check this stuff out!! Do you want me to tell my guvnor about it? I know it’s not ‘Finance’ but he can have a word with the news desk and get them to call you? Will that be okay?

Shona – you should have told us more about all this rubbish man!! We are ALL living here – we must stand together against this gutless bunch hiding behind the police. Don’t do this alone any more man. On Sunday tell me what I can do to help ok man? Dre

Wick Village is behind you as well. Is this what you were referring to at the carol singing? It sort of rings a few bells with our ‘virus’s’ on our computers as well. At least my mobile is pay as you go. Can’t bug it mate. Get one.

It must be the contruction companies dude! Think about it! They are the ONLY ones who stand to lose millions in fines if they fall behind in construction dealines. And I mean MILLIONS dude! They would also have the kind of contacts to find out all that army stuff on you. To get hold of classified info, you’d have to do some serious bribing with serious bucks! And they’d do it so as not to ever be implicated. There will be no paper (or email) trail to their offices. That’s my best bet though. Was does Shami from Liberty say?

It must be the contruction companies dude! Think about it! They are the ONLY ones who stand to lose millions in fines if they fall behind in construction dealines. And I mean MILLIONS dude! They would also have the kind of contacts to find out all that army stuff on you. To get hold of classified info, you’d have to do some serious bribing with serious bucks! And they’d do it so as not to ever be implicated. There will be no paper (or email) trail to their offices. That’s my best bet though. Was does Shami from Liberty say?

Sóna, but when you told me last month, I thought you were losing it! The visit by the police just restored my trust in you. They have just been played a blinder!! Whats that wasting police time thing that’s always on the news? They should find out whos wasting their time and bust them.

Please send my love to Nadira, I’ll come over for a cuppa Saturday to chat about it after my shift.

Let’s get together as soon as you can. Now that the authorities are involved, it might help speed up our enquiries as well. Did you tell them everything? It wouldn’t mean that we have to pull our teams, they are much more adept at e-crime than the police ever will be, it might just open a few more doors.

Hello ShonaLunchtime brings all this!! I can’t believe it’s come to this! All of a sudden WE are the ones that are doing illegal activities? All we wanted was for the Olympic lot to turn their machines off at night, and to water down their dust like they promised. Now all of a sudden the police are accusing us of starting fires or something. Whos been telling porkies about us? Who are these people messing with us. Why aren’t they man enough to come and talk to us? Digging up all this stuff from ones past and threatening to use it as if it is going to stop us complaining about noise and dust? I WANT them to be caught so I can actually SEE the eyes. I want to SEE who thinks they can bully a whole community into silence. Philomena

I told you them napier lot were gonna be trouble. Why don’t the police support a community instead of dissing them about stuff they aint even done. When they gonna deal with them hippies (no ‘fence) and get them out that place.Harry

What does a police person know about blogs? They probably thought that you write everything that’s on it. Either that, or they are acting thick cos they don’t know who to be heavy with. Someones told them to lean on the agitators, and youre the only one they can find who writes a blog in the Wick. Lazy policing man!

NadiraWe are with you and your family. Next time call us all around as soon as you feel uncomfortable with the police. You do not HAVE to open the door. But we want them to sort this stuff out, so call as many of us as you want to come over while they there. Or tell them to visit Sona at Oxfam if they want to chat in office hours, they need to make a appointment first. Stella

Man they’ve make me mad! This is going too far now Are we just supposed to shut up and say yes sir no sir to the olymics making our live hell! Why do I have to have trucks rolling past my bedroom on a weekend and say nothing becos the Olympics says so. Why has my kid gotta have a inhaler now and I cant go to a meeting becos the police says its not safe? Why have I gotta live like in china where the police cleared the Olympic residents out with broot force? This is Great Britain. Its democracy. Its suppose to let me say what I want to the people who make my life a misery. Now the police say I cant go to a meeting to tell the Olympics what they doing wrong.

SónaWe got very practiced at taking impact statements while in Beijing, so Hackney Wick will be no problem. Have you spoken to John at Amnesty yet, he has tried to call you a few times but you’re constantly engaged. Please give Shami’s number if they pull you in, and insist that you will only deal with her. She has all the info with her. My guess is that they will be very surprised at what we know! Jeff

Please tell Nadira to give us a call if she she’s them through the spyhole again. They have to wait for her to have us neighbours with her when they come. It’s such a laugh that on the very day they send us nice sweet colourful brochures telling us that they really care about their ‘closest neighbours’ – they send the police over to arrest you! Nice community work ODA! You really know how to ‘liaise’ with us don’t you?

Poor things down in Leabank at it again. When you gonna learn you bunch of commie hippies- you cant stop progress. You get a cough and a bit of noise and the whole Olympics for the worlds athletes gotta stop just cause you want some sleep. Shut up or move out you bunch of winging woosies

Just saw it all. Please know that you’re never alone. The whole of the Wick is behind you. Just because we can’t seem to get as organised as you in Leabank doesn’t mean that the Village doesn’t support you guys. I think these next few months when WE really get the noise will be the tipping point. That’s when the rest of the Village will wake up with a REALLY loud bump. See you Sunday.

Jeremy says that they’ll fix the entry system later today. I don’t think the police realise the fright they give a member of the public when they knock loudly and say even louder ‘POLICE’. What are we meant to think. Especially after the ‘accident’ on Sóna’s bike. Gilly

Sorry to hear about the police visit. This is nothing less than low level intimidation. But its also nothing more. They have been played. Whoever sent the police to you (they would never have had any cause or reason to visit you otherwise) has played them neatly into doing their bidding. The nerds are working out the whos & whys, but don’t get too stressed about it.

These situations are played out across the land every minute of every day. It’s not pleasant, but ‘stuff’ happens. What never ceases to amaze me is why people like you get visits, and anti-social neighbours like the ODA & the Lord Napier ‘anarchists don’t. Who can explain that?

MateMaybe we should reverse the tables? Let’s invite plod over and tell him exactly whats been happening to us! I know they’ll think we’re a bunch of nutters at first, but when they see all the evidence The Agency has dragged out of our computers, they might start seeing exactly who is agitating who? What you reckon?Dirk

Hi SonaSorry I cant do one of the accent things. Sorry too about the hassle. How does PC Bolter think you are going to tell us not to agitate without us thinking you’re going nuts? Besides, your kind of agitating – singing Xmas carols loudly at even LOUDER machinery - is hardly going to stop them making our lives a misery is it?

We couldn’t work out what that previous blog entry was all about, anyway it just didn’t sound like you wrote it. Thanks for clarifying the background to it. It makes sense now. I have just spent hours looking at what you’ve ever written about the ODA and can’t find a single bit of agitation about it.

I agree with some commentators that I don’t think PC Bolter even knew what he was talking about. He was given a script, delivered it, job done. Little (VERY little) does he realise just what has led up to this point.

Sona – you know I’m in the business – and I know you don’t think that much of it – but I simply cannot fathom how a so-called bunch of professional public relations people cocked all this up all along the way.

At work the only answer we’ve come up with is that they were briefed wrongly at the beginning. Whichever agency did the groundwork on local community impacts – messed it up entirely. So that when the ODA took over – they worked with inadequate knowledge – ignored the first few letters – didn’t take us seriously – thought we were a fragmented unorganised community – put us in a conveniently stereotyped ‘Hackney ’box – whichever way you look at it – they read us all wrong.

Rip out our orchard without so much as a replacement tulip bulb. Turn the volume up to 11 without so much as a thought to putting kids to bed at 9pm. Move mountains of toxic earth without so much as a warning to the local asthma & hay-fever sufferers. I could go on & on. But if a small advertising agency such as ours can come up with solutions to their cock-ups – why cant such highly trained & professional Pr people do better?

You know- whether it’s the ODA, the LDA, the IOC, the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, Hackney Council, Morrisons, Boris Johnson, BAM Nuttal, David Higgins, Carillion, some over-enthusiastic Olympic Supporter, the police intelligence unit on the site, Hugh Lugg, Gordon Brown, Tessa Jowell, Johnathan Ross, Michael Jackson, whoever – its still wrong!! They have no right to mess with private & confidential correspondence of people who just want a bit of healthy peace & quiet.

SónaAfter all you did to get democracy in your homeland, I’m embarrassed you are seeing our form of it here in my country. I know our PC’s are nothing compared to BOSS, but we still shouldn’t be getting these ‘word in you ear Sir’ visits in a democracy.

They belong in a dictatorship where backhanders are exchanged for the police to do big businesses dirty work. Please know that we’re right beside you Sóna. Anything they do to you, they’re doing to all the Square. Have you seen the pamphlet they sent to us all in preparation for you ‘talking to’?

Laughable! But sad!

The democratically elected representative we get to speak to the ODA gets an ear bashing while the ODA tries to sweeten the rest of us with more lies!

Just heard NadiraSorry about the spook! He was just sent to stamp his foot down hard – that’s all. They are sometimes so used to doing it for the crims that they can’t work out when to ease off. Come over for a chat if you need. Get out of Leabank for a few hours! The noise only adds to the general feeling of oppressiveness – and the PC Plod comes to top that up!! Nice one Mr Olympics – if you can’t shut us up – you want to drive us insane! KP

SónaWhat a crock of doo-doo they posted – YES POSTED!!!! to us! And then they try and have you arrested on the same day just to drive the point home. Still – at least we know that the police know everything now. But what a way to find out by giving you all such a shock?!Phil

Excuse me!!!!! But aren’t we missing one MASSIVE fundamental point here? What are the ODA or the police doing spending time reading a tiny community blog? What is it about Leabank Square that they are SOOOOOOO interested in?

They could spend their time doing…….

……… oooo – let me see now ………..

WATERING DOWN THE BLOODY SOIL on the construction site so that there are no more dust clouds blowing ANYWHERE!!!!!!!

Instead – what do they choose to spend their time on? Listening in on a community talking about where to plant next years Xmas trees! The calling the police to report this suspicious behaviour!! Which means they are probably reading this right now! Hey – PC Bolder – leave us alone! And as for you Mr Olympics – get you snivelly nose out of our business. And if that’s you behind them Mr Hackneycouncil, get some spine and give us a bit of a return on our council tax by supporting us!!

We’ve met but you might not remember me from the Trowbridge centre. It’s Eileen. Geoff showed me this site and whats going on. I think its shameful that the police are trying to stop us going to our own meeting by scaring us off. I might be in my seventies but they are never going to stop me going about my own busness. Good luck.

Sóna please swing by on your way home tonight. My shift finishes at 8. If you want we could go somewhere to chat about all this intimidation. I probably slept through some of it during the festive season as we had longer shifts, but I remember a few things going more wrong with our emails as well.

I tell you man, you couldn’t make any of this up could you? Are you sure this isn’t all just research for that guy opposite who’s writing the play about Leabank Square? But it just shows how paranoid these construction people are about any setbacks us runty neighbours might pass by them!!

Anyhow – get them to call me from the A&E reception. With any luck I can leave straight on 8.Matt

Do'nt let them get you down. We are all still counting on you to get the Sunday construction work scrapped. Don't let them scare you from asking any questions on our behalf at the meeting. We asked you to do a job, so please carry on doing it. If the police try and stop you, we will all take many photos of them.Maria

Poor PC gets sent to tell you off and he hasn’t even a clue what he’s telling you off for. How can he not have even read the blog and still tell you that you’ve written this and that? Smells like ODA to me. Typical bully tactics. Getting an 8 foot something POLICEMAN to do their dirty work for them – there – that should sort them Hackney types over the river out!

There is only one source for all of this intimidation – and it comes from the general direction of Canary Wharf officer!

There must be some way of using the settings to stop them reading the blog. Some way of making it just available to residents and friends of Leabank Square. But the ‘someone’ has already hacked into our emails – so they will just carry on using some back door!

Are you sure Leabank Square is not sitting on top of some diamond mine or something? There has got to be some other reason why they want to know what we are all talking about? They can’t just ALL be boringly surfing the web with nothing else to do than spy on us?

Next time you plant a tree – dig a bit deeper. Maybe we will all be rich enough to move to Hawaii with an undiscovered Diamond Load under the green.Sarah

You know, now that all this has come up, I must just tell you that there has definitely been an increase in the patrols by those dog handlers along passed Wick Village. Used to be once a day, now its much more and during the night to. What are they scared of? That we sing carols louder next time? Talk about paranoyer?

SónaHave you sent anything to Meg Hillier yet? Even if she has even been nobbled by the same people who got to the police, she is still your MP, you still voted for her, you are still her constituent, she still has to look after you when this kind of thing happens. Okay, so she’s a Home Office junkie, but the police are harassing you, and that should be her main focus! See you next week.JK

It’s not right these police scaring us away from our won community centre like this. We should be able to say what we like to whoever we like without being visited by the old bill. As long as we don’t threaten or harm anyone like the Olympic people are harming us. Maybe the old bill think theres going to be too many people attending and are trying to scare half off to manage it better. Still its not right.

There is still another factor that we haven’t discussed yet. Your surname is probably on a list marked ‘of interest’ somewhere on the Olympic Police Unit’s computer. It might just be that a few other Muslim sounding neighbours of the Olympics are getting similar visits from local Plodders? I was at Stratford Station yesterday and there were a few of us passengers waiting for trains, friends, connections, etc milling around those glass cabinets on the first floor. Guess which skin tone millers attracted the interest of the armed police who just happened to be patrolling past? Me? Walked right through me? My massive grocery filled backpack? No interest at all. Asian passenger next to me? Full-on 5 minute grilling.

SonaSo now we can’t go to the very community meeting set up to talk to the people who are making our lives such a misery! What I don’t get is why invite us, then proceed to put us off coming by getting the rozzers to hassle us! Maybe they just want to say to their bosses that they set it all up, and we are all very happy bunnies, we’re doing a great job, same time next year?I could do the community job far better than these jokers for a tenth their salary!Jen

Thanks for all the support – we really appreciate it – especially fellow Leabankers!

It all comes down to how we FEEL in the end. We FEEL ignored. We FEEL sidelined. We FEEL as if we’re inconveniencing the ODA by just being here. We FEEL that the council has handed over control of Hackney Wick to the ODA. We FEEL unsupported!

Feelings count for much more than what the realities are. The realities are that we are right next to a major construction site, and it IS noisy and it IS dusty and it IS disruptive. When we want to say this to the ODA we keep hearing the same old suck record about mitigation. We can see that they are lying to us – yet they persist in telling us the same old lies over & over again.

So it makes us a bit frustrated, and when we voice this frustration, we get wrapped over the knuckles for it.

I can’t use ANY influence over your feelings. YOU feel them. What I would LIKE is for you all to still turn up to the meeting and tell the ODA exactly what you FEEL. Of course they still might lie, we have yet to see any other action taken by them.

But if we just give up, what have we gained?

See you there!

peaceSóna

Felix – please could you cap off the comments on this entry now, I’m a bit too busy with loads of AGM’s for a few weeks, and don’t want too many more surprise visits & phone calls.

Sóna asked me to end this threads comments, but as you are all still a tiny bit upset, the comments are still pouring in.

I'm diverting them straight to his email box, but if you would like to send them direct - please email leabanksquare@london.com and he will get them.

He was a bit shocked & surprised to see more comments, and feels that we shouldn't invite any more visits by the police by posting them up here. But we can all still communicate by emails.

We all know that our emails are also hacked into by somebody - so please remember that they are still going to be read. But all the police were keen on was for Sóna to stop the comments coming onto our blog.

I hope after this meeting is over that you'll address the issue of why the Leabank Square blog should be held responsible for the views of people who post comments in relation to the concerns raised here.

This is not the police's business, unless they happen to believe that we are living in China, Iran, Malaysia or one of the other countries that believes that it is entitled to censorship.

Why do the Hackney police feel entitled to make visits to you on the basis of the comments people post? Please can you obtain a formal statement from the Hackney police as to how exactly they saw themselves responding to the contents of the blog and under what legislation were they taking action.

No need to antagonise them but they have a responsibility to be transparent in matters like this.

Welcome!!

We all love Leabank Square - and want to see our lives here improve day by day.

By contributing to this blog we will all feel as if we have a say in how we want our square to be.

Of course we could all use it as a whinge blog to whine on about the rubbish collections or cars parked on the sidewalk at the entrance -

BUT

- how about we all use it to make our lives a lot more positive?!

How about we all use it to organise litter pick-up days, or comunal barbeques in the middle of the square, or meetings to get the management company to change something?

Anything!!

Please, please, PLEEEEEZZZZZZ feel free to add comment (by simply clicking on the 'comment' tab at the end of each section), share news, show photos, invite neighbours, etc to this blogsite. Let's get communicating!!

Forum - Let's Discuss.....

I know that many of us are happy to simply comment on some of these blogs.Then some of us are also happy to send some pics & topics for blogs to the leabanksquare@london.com email adress.But if anyone is interrested in discussing any subject at much greater length & detail - then please follow the link to the Leabank Square forum site.http://leabanksquare.lefora.com/forum/You can either open up a completely new topic - or add your thoughts to an existing topic.This way we can all get more off our chests, discuss new ideas, get to know each other a lot better - and generally improve all aspects of Leabank Square by chatting about any thoughts we may have!!Even if you don't want to contribute - please visit it often to see what the rest of us are chatting about.......

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